KSR - 2024-05-03- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Matt, Ryan, Drew, and Shannon talk graduation, UK Basketball, and Kentucky Derby weekend.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

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And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Comedy of Broadway and Lexington welcomes back, film and MTV star Tom Green, April 19th and 20th. Then catch international comedy sensation Randy Feldface on his first Lexington visit April 25th through the 27th. Then it's the return of the funniest man in America, James Gregory, May 2nd through the 4th. For tickets to all shows. Call 859271 joke or visit Comedy OffBroadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone, Kentucky Sports Radio here live at the KS Bar and Grill.

Friday, May the 3rd. I'm Matt Jones on a very rainy Friday graduation day here in Lexington, Kentucky. You can give us a shout on the Clark's Pubpit Shop phone line, 859.9. 280 2287. A Vision Auto Glass Text Machine is 772-7474-5254 in this edition sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office you call T.J. He'll make them pay. It is a few things. First of all, it's a wet day in Lexington. I hear it's even worse in Louis. Just it poured Shannon this morning. Yes. Yes. It's what's doing right now. Is it still pouring? And it's Oaks Day. I mean, it's going to be a sloppy day at the track. Then today in Lexington is graduation day. today and tomorrow. I, this is a message because I know a lot of you are listening who are either in town for

graduation or coming up here for graduation because there are graduations all, there's all day. Whatever time you've got to be somewhere, leave early. Because it is an absolute cluster downtown. People everywhere, traffic everywhere. Clearly people not knowing where to go, where to park. I have to say, I don't know that I've seen a wilder morning in downtown Lexington than this one was. I guess they had a graduation starting at 9 or 10, and it was, like, I woke up to people honking at each other and screaming at 7.30 in the morning, and I knew, okay, so it's going to be one of those kind of days, right?

Yeah, you know, people in this town that kind of forget how to drive when it rains to begin with. So raining, Friday. Yes. graduation, you know, Kentucky, Arkansas. There's a lot of Arkansas fans downtown because the Kentucky plays Arkansas and baseball this weekend. Drew, you got stuck in it, didn't you? I did.

I had to come into the pre-show with Shannon this morning. Didn't realize it was going on trying to come down Newtown Pike. I'm like, what is going on? It was wild downtown. I'll add, I saw the buses. We're also hosting the NCAA and tennis today, so I saw their team buses downtown. Today and move-in day is when you see.

people in Lexington going the wrong way on one-way streets because you get people that don't know Lexden well. We have a few confusing spots. There's always good for a few people going the wrong way downtown or on campus. So I think there are graduations like all day, right into the early. Today and tomorrow. Today and tomorrow. So I would just say to you, I'm sure there are those of you listening who are on your way. Just get there early wherever you are because or give yourself time because it is a, it's going to be wild.

Now, of course, you can also come here to KS. Bar. This is usually a fun day here at the bar. We got a great crowd here already this morning. We're going to be on here from 10 to noon. Then we're going to turn the music and the sound on. But from noon to three, guess who's going to be sitting right in this spot? An Arkansas radio station. Are they?

They asked for, because I'm at you, you know, look, they have our coach. They saved us $35 million, but they also need a place to do. They also need a place to do radio. and it's the radio show that has former quarterback Matt Jones. Is it really? Yes, so we will finish. Matt Jones will lead in to Matt Jones right here on this stage. Monique asked me, do we need to turn the music down so people can all hear it?

I was like, I don't think they're going to want to hear it. I don't think they're going to want to hear the Arkansas thing, but that will be here this afternoon. It's actually kind of cool. You know, they're in town obviously for the big baseball series, but we hate to ruin it for them. You know, we want to make it nice here at KS. Bar and Grill, for them, but we're going to ruin their weekend overall.

That tells you how big baseball is at Arkansas that their radio shows travel for baseball series. I mean, that's kind of wild, isn't it? Especially for Kentucky series. That just shows the importance of this game in the conference. Maybe they do it for all of them, but I know there's a lot of Arkansas

fans making the trip for the significance of this in the league. Yeah, I mean, I think this is, if Arkansas wins this series, they probably win the league. And if we win the series, we have a shot at winning the I mean, I think if we want to win the league, we got to win this series. So there's a lot going on out there at the stadium.

Probably one of the biggest, I'd say probably one of the biggest regular season baseball series Kentucky's ever hosted. Yeah, and we're coming off just two weeks ago, which was then probably the biggest baseball series there. When Tennessee came in, they had over 7,000 for each game. Expect that, maybe even more this weekend tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. Both teams have five losses. So somebody's going to be in first when this is over. That's exactly right.

So, all right, so it's graduation, which led me to think about, you know, like my graduation. And I thought it might be a good time to say, what do you remember from your graduations? Okay, so we'll start with my high school graduation. My high school graduation was the hundredth graduation in the history of our high school. Oh, it was. Yeah, so I, we had to like all, somebody, I can't remember who presented a big, I don't know, what do you call it? Picture? Yeah, that's probably what it is.

that we brought out, and it's still hanging at the high school because we were the 100th graduating class. And then in college, that was Transylvania. That's the speech I told you, where William T. Young, he of the library, was like 95 years old, and he was our commencement speaker, and he came out and he said, I have one thing to say in life, get to the point. And then he just sat down. Brilliant speech. No, no, that was, no, I'm... Yes.

And everyone went crazy because it was hot outside because we graduate and transient like the end of May. It's hot outside. People start going nuts. He gets a standing ovation. And then our president, Charles, what was his name? Oh, it's on the tip of my time. He had a big head.

Charles... Charles Bigot. I want to call him Schumer, but that's the... No, that's not him. It was Charles. Anyway, what Chuck... What's his, anyway, I forget it. He was the president.

He made one of the greatest mistakes of all time of his entire presidency. He went to William T. Young and go, no, no, you can't do that. Say something else. Say something else. Terrible mistake. Oh, no. He then got up. He didn't have a speech because he was just going to do that.

Yeah. And he talked for, I think, 13 hours. Oh, brutal. It was Britain. I'll never forgive the press. He almost had the greatest speech of all time. Sherer. Shearer, that's right.

Good call. Well, I knew it was on the tip of my tongue. So anyway, that was mine. Do you have anything from your... My high school graduation, I had a speaker who was like an English professor from the University of Evansville, and she was awful. It was awful. It was like, yeah, two hours of brutalness. I remember I walked with a gal that I had never even talked to my whole high school career.

Yeah. And then my college graduation, I remember it was one of the last events. My grandfather and grandmother attended together because he passed away shortly after that. So that's my best memory of my Kentucky Wesleyan graduation. What about you, Drew? Do I have to? Yes. Well, yours was after seven to eight years, right?

Well, which do you want? Both are interesting stories. Pick one, and I'll start there. College, I was at Bob Evans on Richmond Road during my graduation. Just wasn't feeling it. You didn't go? You didn't go to your graduate. No, just wasn't really into it.

You had biscuits and gravy instead. You skipped graduation and went to Bob Evans? I mean, wow. Don't really regret it either. that's probably not a good look. Some people appreciate their graduation. I had no interest in going. What about your family? Did they not want you? I told them early in the process, I don't want this to be a thing. Is that weird? I mean, I think it's a little weird. I was ready to go. The stories of sitting there all day and hearing names called, I just business and gravy sounded better. I didn't even order the gown.

Well, two guys in my class skipped graduation. Their names were Todd and Abe because the new Dukes of Hazard video game had debuted the day before. And they stayed up on night played that and skipped graduation and I thought that was strange I didn't like wake up and skip that morning I knew pretty early on I wouldn't want to go okay so I know that a lot of people think that's a bad look I don't really regret it to the game yeah I was I was going to say in hindsight do you wish you would walk the stage or anything I don't know I mean maybe it'd be a cool picture I don't know I don't know where it might be nice well Mario asked me last night if I had a picture from my graduation and I don't think I do I'm sure my parents do but I don't think that I do trancy or

Duke, either one. You got a picture? Yeah, I forgot about Duke. Yeah, I don't think I have any of them, at least like on my phone. I'm sure they exist somewhere. Shannon, what about you? I was going to give you my high school, and it's even better if you want it. Okay, go for it. So it turns out when you skip school, you have to make up hours to graduate,

and it was mathematically impossible for me to make up the hours that I'd skipped. So I had to be a janitor with the other janitors, and I cleaned every locker in Madisonville North Hopkins High School the day before graduation, swept the floors, set out the chairs for graduation, just so I could walk the stage. So they made me, they made you clean the school in order to graduate? Well, there was a policy. Like, you'd stay after and, you know, do some tutoring or do something. But it got to the point where I was a little behind, and I just did like eight-hour shifts at the school and then got to graduate.

You got to be the first person I've ever heard that had to be a janitor to graduate. There's pictures of me with the broom. Cleaning out of the lockers was not fun. But go to school, kids. Go to class. All right. fair enough. Shanda, what about you? My high school graduation was long, boring. I couldn't wait for them to call my name so I could just go up there and get that diploma and get out of there.

I do remember, though, afterwards, there was something I think it's called Project Graduation. We had that at Middlesbril, too. They lock you in a school and play fake casino games and stuff so you won't drink. You had that too? Yeah, yeah, I did. I don't know why I did that. I guess I had no other better alternative, but that's about all I remember from it. I'm by the way throwing a project graduation for my mom on next weekend. Are you? Yes, I'm worried mom and Larry are going to go party all night. I can see you're worried.

After she graduates from seminary, so I'm going to give them a project graduation. We're going to play blackjack. And the goal is to just keep Larry awake past midnight. If we can do that, I think it'll be a very successful graduation. What's the movie like Project X where they have the house party and ends up, you know, they're on the roof? You think it'll be kind of like that. Probably.

Maybe a car in the pool. Probably so. I asked my mom, I was like, because we're going to Dallas. And I said, all right, so we're in Dallas. You know, it's your weekend, right? Like you're graduating. This is mom's week. Whatever you want to do, we'll do.

And you know what she wants to do? Go see where JFK was shot. I knew you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say that. She wants to go see the grassy knoll. And I was like, really? Isn't it just grass and rocks? Like it's not, but that's what she wants to do.

And it's her graduation. So we're going to go reenact Lee Harvey Oswald there in Dallas, I guess. Take lots of pictures. Does she have like a pre-graduation party for her class? Because it's like a seminary. They have like a chapel and then they have a graduation and then there's like a Texas barbecue. So she's doing all that? Well, I mean, she wants to go.

Unlike Drew, they didn't make her like clean up before she does it. And she wants to go to all of it. So that's what we're going to do. But good luck to everybody. Congrats to everyone graduating. today here in Lexington and tomorrow, and I hope it goes well and just save time for the traffic. 859-280-2287. This morning, the big story in Kentucky is more Mark Pope at the airport. Okay. He flew to Provo, or Utah for the weekend, I think to see his family more than anything.

There are people who are like, you think he's going for Jackson Robinson? I mean, he might seem, but also remember, he still lives there. So I do think that's part of it. it and I guess Colin Chandler was flying home from his mission met him in the airport again first time a coach has ever met a Mormon missionary at the airport that's science and it was good to see he continues that like down home touch it is and it's just a personal touch that we know we haven't seen around here in a while and it's just kind of nice to see your coach act that way with his future team then Jonathan Giovanni from Draft Express who you remember we met when he was what 18 years?

years old. Years ago, he was like the little dorky kid that was doing draft stuff. Now he's the main draft. He reported that, I guess not last night, but two nights ago, they became a little worried that Amari Williams might decommit from Drexel and go somewhere else. And he got on a plane and flew to him in Philadelphia and made sure and got him to commit to stay. So not only has he been here doing all that, he actually did a late night trip to Philly to lockdown of Marie Williams. When do we get a photo of Pope sleeping? I think I'm ready to just know that my man is getting at least an hour.

I think he's doing that this weekend. I think this weekend he's kind of taking the weekend. I don't know this, but I suspect the trip to Utah. We might see the family at their first derby, too. I mean, that's usually a big deal, the Kentucky coach making the rounds and Louisville and all that. So maybe he's bringing them. Maybe he is.

I'd heard he wouldn't be back till Monday, but maybe he will come back. I don't know that. That seems like a big ceremonial thing, as popular as he is right now. He's already been to Keenland three times. I mean, I feel like he's got to do a wave at Derby. Yeah. Well, I mean, if he doesn't, I would understand, don't you think, if he were decided to pass this time? You know, we haven't been talking about so much about how busy he's been with his recruiting and his roster. He does still have a wife and family back in Utah there.

And he has to move. Yeah, he's got to move over here. He's got to move all the way across the country. That's going to be a lot. So anyway, it looks like they've got the majority of their roster. And as we said yesterday, 859-280-22-87, how do you feel about how things are going? feel free to give us a shout. We've got a lot going on today.

We'll talk more. UT Big Hair is going to call in and give us some derby picks later. We will take a break and be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back, Tucky Sports Radio. 859-2802287. Before we go to the phones, a couple more interesting things. Jack Pilgrim reported yesterday that when the assistant coach Cody Figer,

for those of you that don't see, he puts on Twitter a boom. every time there's going to be a commitment, which is kind of a cool little thing, Jack Pilgrin reported that what he does is he lets the recruit that they're getting pick which boom he's going to use. So that when you see the boom, it is a gift of something that they picked. So you actually would learn something in theory about their personality based on which one they do. So now in the future, when we have one, people will have more of a chance to guess based on what do you think this guy would have picked. Drew, do you like that? I love it.

And I went back and watched the ones we already have and, you know, paired him up with players. Kirk Creasa, the one with personality, did Danny DeVito in a dog sweater with an explosion behind him. I think that has to be the winner. That has to be the winner. I think so. And then Brandon Garrison did Kenny Powers that I liked. But now that we know what they are, it is neat putting it in with the player. I do think that's neat.

that becomes a thing. Like the kid looks forward to the one he's going to pick. I like that. I mean, I think this group for, uh, this group is much more connected to something resembling modernity, right? Like,

I mean, it's not, you know, I think it's a little different from before when, when really none of them were on social media of any significance. I mean, they had accounts, but like,

you know, Cal's account, somebody else ran it, the assistance. I'm not sure did the assistants ever really do anything that you can remember. We just found out Chin had a Twitter account, but I don't know if they had any related to. I mean, we are the biggest fan base on social media, so it is fun to have our coaches participating now. Yeah, I mean, this fan base is on, certainly on Twitter more than any other fan base.

There may be like, you know, TikTok and stuff. There may be other ones, but this fan base on Twitter is by far the most. Just another personal touch, and we enjoy it, but I tell you who it means more to. those kids, those social media, just little touches like that, means a lot to them, something they can be proud about. How's the social media game coming for you? You're still posting on the bond the bridge and the website? I answered the KS board question just right before the show started.

This morning? Yeah, I didn't, Drew said every morning, Tyler posts like four questions. Okay, but don't forget the bond that bridge. I did. I think I posted one of you and your purple. suit this week. Yes. I used to always have a big oak suit. Remember back in the day? They would take me shopping down on like Broadway and, you know, in Louisville. I put that on the site just now if anyone wants to see it. Good. That's a great purple suit. I have a teal one. The teal one.

Yeah, with matching teal socks. So it's all working out. Now, the second thing is, did you look into being an Estonia East citizen? So tell me what, tell me about that. I've got, I got some things we can discuss. Okay. Just to become an Estonian citizen, that's, you know, you got to live, you've got to do there for 10 years. But to do the e-citizenship, you can apply and you have a lot of advantages, but they have to approve you have to prove that you're going to own a business or operate a business or manage a business in Estonia to be approved. So, like, I couldn't just do it myself.

I would have to kind of prove that I'm going to be doing business in Estonia. So get to work. Thank you very much. I mean, what business do you think you could run in Estonia? I feel like, you know, you need to diversify your portfolio, not just. just realtor, radio host, Estonian oligarch, maybe. What would you like to do? Look, dude, I just got on the KSR message board.

Baby steps here. Let me take baby steps. But for somebody that was doing some business, it seemed like you get tax breaks if you do this. So if you had a business to you, there are some, a lot of advantages. I just don't think I have it. Yesterday, I looked at the map of where Estonia is. And Estonia is like, for those of you that are familiar with geography, think of where like Finland is.

So you got like Norway and Sweden, and then a little bit east of that is Finland. And if you think of Helsinki Finland, right across the sea is Estonia. It's right next to Russia. Like it's right next to like St. Petersburg. So it's on the top half of it. They touch each other, right? They border each other. They border each other.

And the thing is to get, you can get from Helsinki to what was the name of the capital, Tajine. Tallinn. It's a very short boat ride. Okay. So I was contemplating going to Finland. So I'm at least thinking about making the jump. And you might get a picture for me one day standing on the streets of Estonia because people say it's like, you know, Eastern Europe has kind of become, it's still awesome. But, like, you know, tourists have discovered it, and it's kind of one of the last countries that's nice that hasn't become, like, tourist infested yet.

So maybe it's worth learning. I read a lot about it. It's the crime rates low, education's high, unemployment's low. I mean, they've really got a lot of things going for it. So if I visit, if I see any job openings, I'll holler at you. Yeah, just give me a holler. Yeah, I'm sure can apply. No problem.

Start my business in Estonia and get my e-citizenship. All right. So with the nine players we have now, let's, uh, Let's assume we get Jackson Robinson. We talked yesterday. We all picked third in the SEC. Shannon picked fourth. Let me put it a different way.

Do you feel like if that's the team, is that a team Kentucky fans through the course of the year, Drew, we'll be happy with? I think so. I expected a pretty big dip this year when we had just gotten pope and we're all in Rupp celebrating.

We're excited, but I still thought it was a lot to ask of him in his first year on short notice. But my floor is a lot higher than it was. I think they should be a good team. And, I mean, I think they should be a tournament team. I think they should compete in the SEC regular season. This is assuming they add, you know, the one or two pieces he still wants to add. But I love what he has so far.

And if he can just lock down a couple more that are on his radar, this should be a team that's in the hunt in the conference. And, I mean, should be in the tournament. We should expect to win some games. This isn't. I don't think the dip that I thought it would be a couple weeks ago exists anymore. I think we're going to be all right. We all agree.

He'll need to get that a dude. They need to get a dude. And if Jackson Robinson can be that dude, that guy, see what they've got all the other pieces. They've got a point guard, they've got lockdown defenders, they've got big butt post players. I mean, they've got everything you want to put together on a good team. They just need to get a dude.

I had a guy right me yesterday. He was very upset saying, like, that's not a team that can win a national championship. And I probably would agree with that. But I don't really know what people expected. I mean, I guess I have thought my entire life. or at least since Cal's been here. The day Cal leaves, it's a complete restart.

Yeah. Right? Like, it's a, because, again, it's a devil's bargain with Cal. You're going to get really good players and be good, but the moment he leaves, you have to start over. That's what, I mean, just think about how bad Memphis and UMass were after he left. They just completely fell apart as a program. And so I've always assumed we were going to fall apart.

So I never thought you could win a title. I would go so far as to say, this team's going to be a game. a lot better than what I would have thought could be after Cal for 15 years. Now, part of that's the portal. The portal allows you to be competitive, whereas before you couldn't have, but part of it, Pope's done a good job. So if you go into this going, I want this team next year to be as good as Cal was in his prime, you're going to be disappointed.

But there's no reason we can't be as good as we were these last four years. Heck yeah. I certainly think we can. All right. We'll take your calls. very back. KS.R. T.J. Smith, personal injury attorney. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here at KS. Barn Grill. We got a good crowd of folks here for a great week.

It's a great weekend to be in Lex if you don't talk about the traffic downtown this morning. Because a lot of stuff going on. You're missing the NCAA tennis, UK baseball, the town's kind of alive. Oaks, Derby, graduation, a lot of stuff going on, so it should be exciting. We will make our Derby selections. I'm still trying to figure out which long shot. You know, that strategy I use been pretty successful, something like seven to last 10 years or something, which is a pretty good run, a hit and trifectus.

Hopefully we can get it done again today. Yeah, right. So are you going? No. You're not going to go? This first time you've not been in a long time then. No, I haven't been since. COVID. Okay. Not Oaks either? No. No. I'm not trying to downplay it, but even in the last 12 years,

it's become significantly worse of an in-person thing to me, at least. I'm not saying it's not, but even in the last 10th. I mean, like, for instance, everybody is praising that area around the paddock, but that used to be the one place that the average person could go, and now they've basically taking that away too. So, I mean, to be quite frank with you, Derby is really not an experience for Kentuckians anymore, right? Like, it's just, it's like going to Gatlinburg. The people out in Gatlinburg don't live in Gatlinburg. The people at the Derby now, unless you're in the infield, they're not people from Kentucky anymore, really. And so I just, I don't, I really enjoyed it those first few years, but the last couple of years, I just felt like it's, it's almost like

going to a circus of a race rather than a race. And the infield, they're pricing them out a little bit this year too. I mean, it's $130. That's crazy for that local crowd that has been going there for a I think when I was in college, it was like 10. Yeah. I think I paid 25 when I'm in college. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, so I mean, I get it. Make as much money as you can. I get it, but I just, I don't think it's quite as enjoyable to me like it used to be. I still love that. I still love the pageantry and the event and embedding on it. But in person, I just, I don't know. It's just, it's not quite the same.

Who's up first, Shannon? All right, let's start with Mike. Mike, what's up, Mike? Hey, how you doing that? Good. We really love your show. I listen to some time to time. My wife has always listened to it.

As fact, I always kid around with her that she's got a big, big crush on Shannon, the dude. Oh, I thought you were going to say me. Shannon. I mean, come on. Your wife's got good taste, obviously. She has a crush on Shannon, that's fine. But go ahead. I have a whole lot of things I could say about that much.

Okay, we just have to do one. What do you got? Okay. Well, the one I wanted is a non-basket or non-sports or whatever. The other day, y'all was talking about Tubby Smith. And let me tell you, personal experience we had with him. When he left here, I knew, of course, I knew his days were numbered when he got hit his third straight double-digit loss. with him, though.

The experience was we emailed him or wrote him a letter telling him how much we appreciated him and everything. And you know about three or four weeks later, he sent us a postcard and had a logo of Euro-Smith on it, telling us how much he appreciated. And it was handwritten, you can tell it was, how much you appreciated us, how much he appreciated his time here at Kentucky. That's awesome. That's awesome.

I mean, he was a one. Go ahead. I just says it just shows you what kind of a person he was away from the basketball court That's exactly right thank you and your wife for listening he is tubby was a a great man in those ways And I do think with Mark Pope you're gonna see that same kind of connection I think there's gonna be people who have stories of you know That we I had this interaction with him I had that interaction with him I think and to be fair I think Cal had those too it's just I

I think Pope will probably be a little bit more accessible maybe than some of the coaches we've had recently. Yeah, not surprised to hear a story like that about Tubby Adall. He's that time of guy, and I agree with you. I think Mark Popes is that kind of guy. They're just so appreciative and understanding of what this fan base, what the program means to this fan base. We'll see a lot of stories like that. Do you think when the excitement that we've seen so far for Pope, Drew,

do you think that continues into the preseason events, Big Blue Madness, you know, the early games, etc.? At some point the success of the team will dictate that. But early on, do you think that excitement we saw a couple weeks ago will continue to early basketball event? Yeah, I think so. The fan base is on fire a little bit in a good way. They're excited for just a fresh start. And then with him being one of our own and a guy that's already got a ring on his finger, I think they want to show them as much support as possible with the task he has a head.

Part of what I was worried about, and I've talked about this on the show, but Drew and I've talked about it a lot privately. I just, I was trying to think what it was going to be like if Cal was back, what all those events were going to be like. I thought they were going to be awful. I mean, I think we would have had the smallest attendance at Big Blue Madness ever, probably. And it would have just been, I think next year would have been a show me year in the sense of no one would have gotten excited until they were really good,

and that might not have happened maybe ever, but certainly not until the end of the year. And it just would have been brutal. Yeah. And now this just popped up on Twitter, but Father Jim and Lexington today gave the actual Pope a Pope Kentucky jersey at the Vatican. So, I mean, uh, what? How cool is that?

Father Jim from Lexington met the Pope and brought him a Kentucky jersey. Jim Shico. A pope on it. That is really cool. That just came out. That happened today? I mean, it might have been, you know, yesterday. whatever. I don't know what kind of time change were on there, but he just tweeted it out.

So the Pope got his first Pope jersey. Wow. Now that's actually pretty, that's pretty good. That's very, very good. Brand's a little different than it was. Yeah, no kidding. Maybe instead of Drake, we'll go, we'll take the team over to meet the Pope. Meet the Pope. That's amazing. All right, who's up next? Bren. Bryn. Go ahead, Brent. Hey, Matt. Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to ask you, Matt. I'm really concerned about Kentucky's future with NIL. Jeff Goodman says that it takes about $4 million.

to put a final four team, I mean, on the floor right now. So you would figure in five years it's probably going to be about $8.5 to $9 million. Do you think Kentucky in the next five, ten years that they can be great with NIL? First of all, you got a few things. I think it's a great question for people here live because they can't hear the callers. He's asking, do I think Kentucky can be competitive long-term in NIL and basketball? So the answer to that question is yes, but it will take some work. There's two steps.

Step one is the system is going to change. I think it's going to change pretty quickly. I don't want to bore people with legal details, but you need to read Ross Dellinger put out a story about the NCAA's attempt to settle these lawsuits and what they're considering doing. And what they're considering doing is basically taking $17 to $22 million a year and basically revenue sharing that with athletes in all the sports, basketball, football, everything.

But the majority of it will go to basketball and football because they generate the most money. The lawsuit, so what that lawsuit would do is that lawsuit would essentially settle all the claims right now. And the claims right now are on behalf of all the student athletes now. So that would essentially give them a runway of a year or two, to then deal with what's going to happen in the future. And then I think what they're going to do is they're going to go to Congress. It has to be Congress. Like, that's the thing, as dysfunctional and awful as our Congress is right now,

ultimately they're the only people that can fix this, because they can create a law that says basically the NCAA is different. And for reasons that, again, are complicated, I think they have to do that because our current legal structure, what the NCAA is just doesn't fit in it. They're going to have to find a way to do that. Then when they do that, they can create collective bargaining, which they will. The NCAA can negotiate with representatives of athletes, and all of this will be fixed.

Now, your question, though, is for what if that doesn't happen, right? If that doesn't happen, then I think in basketball, Kentucky is set up to compete pretty well in the next two to four years. but long term they have to get the fan base as a whole to buy in. So the difference between Kentucky and most power SEC schools, we have a lot of money with a set of very few donors. But other schools have like 15 people like that. And we have like five, okay? we because of that we got to get it to where all of us buy in and that's just going to take a while

and there's been very few schools who've done it well to be honest with you i think Tennessee football's done a pretty good job with it i hear that like maybe old miss football's done a pretty good job with it but most schools have been pretty awful at getting their general fan base to participate we'll have to get better with that club blue is a very good start for basketball I think they've done a good job here in the last few weeks. The law familiar thing for Cal, part of what was worrisome is it was a complete dud when it launched. One of these days when I'm feeling frisky, I'll talk about it. Because it's their own, not the people that ran that, I think, did a good job.

But again, not trying to be rude. I think Cal screwed it up. And so they had a launch and they raised $37,000. and they were like, oh no, because you only get one chance to launch. The goal on the site was a million. The goal was a million, and they did 30. Now, I bet you, Club Blue has already raised more than Law Familia did in a week. But long term, if we're going to compete in IL, if Congress doesn't change the rules,

I do think we'll have to get more general fan buy-in. Is that an answer to your question? Yeah, that's good. I was just wondering, you know, like at these political events, people sign the people up to be registered voters. You're going to see more of that. You're going to see more of that. Yes, there's going to be, I think the previous, and I appreciate the call, my complaint for a long time with the old regime was they did. Part of why you need fan engagement, Ryan, is not just to get fans excited, it's to get them to buy it.

And part of what I used to say is bring one of your players here for assigning. And while there's 500 people here, sign them up for the NIL thing. You got them right here, right? Now's the time to do it. And they just didn't see it like that. Mark Pope's group does see it like that. And I think you will see a lot more of that kind of stuff. To get the money, right now they have the excitement.

People are throwing in because Pope. But over time, the fans need something too, and you have to get very clever with it. We've seen schools do cool stuff. And I think right now what Pope has coming up, what is it, June 15th where they meet everyone. And then on the football end, the John Legend Cons, that's pretty pricey. But that's one thing. And if they can continue event-based things to show the fans that they also get something in return, I think it can maintain over the long term.

I mean, the reality is there's about five people that have kept UK football in Iowa afloat. And probably now those people are going to keep UK basketball in Iowa afloat. But you can't do that forever. Like that can't be your business model forever. At some point, you can't do that. If they just changed their mind one day, you're a big chunk of money missing. I mean, just as a practical matter,

we can't ask the crafts to fund us forever. And we can't ask some of the other names to do it forever. And so that's why either the law needs to change or the way they raise money needs to change. We will take a break and be right back. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here at KS. Bar and Grill. 859-280-2-82-87. One person says, Matt, why doesn't the school just you give money for NIL rather than asking the fans?

Well, as of today, they're not allowed to. But again, that's probably going to change sooner rather than later. They're probably going to change the rules and Rev Share, and then they can set caps on NIL. And so that helps. One of things you're never going to be able to do, though, is stop people from doing ads with private things, but they can make it to where these collectives, there's caps. There's a lot of things they can do. It's just going to take a little time.

Now, we have two people here whose birthday it is. First of all, sir, what's your name? Ron. Ron, how old are you? Huh? 64, happy birthday. Came down from Dayton. From Dayton, Ohio.

I've been watching Kobe Brea for four years. Awesome. All right. Thank you for coming. And then, ma'am, what's your name? Janet. Janet, where are you from? I'm from Estal County.

originally. I live here in Lexington. Live in Lexington. Now it's your birthday, and you told Mario, because it was your birthday, that you had a question you wanted to ask, so what is, happy birthday. Thank you. What is your question? Do you think that Rick Petino's team will play in Rupp Arena this year? I think Rick Petino's team will play in Rupp Arena.

It might not be this year. If it's not this year, it'll be next year. but he will do it one of the next two years. This year, their schedule has a lot on it just from what's left over because you've got to play Duke. You play Ohio State and the CBS Classic. We have that Gonzaga series. We have to play Louisville.

We play the ACC team. And they may decide for one year to put it off, but I do think it'll happen. Do you think the Arkansas game will be the biggest game this year? Oh, yeah. Don't you? They're already lining up down there for the Arkansas game. Are you kidding? That's going to be awesome.

I mean, assuming the game is here, which I think it should be, there's a chance we might be in both places, but assuming it's here, it'll be the biggest game of the year. Are you going to go? Well, I don't know that I'd have enough money to get in. She's right. It's going to be pretty expensive. That's right.

Yes, it is. Who is your favorite, who is your favorite UK player of all time? Of all time. Yeah. Louis Dampier, Cotton Nash. Okay, you like Louis Dampier and Cotton Ash? What about in the Calipari era? Who was it?

Well, I know who you're going to say. Cousins. Oh! One of us. I thought you were going to say Reed Shepard, Cousins. Cousins. Why did you like Boogie? he just had an attitude.

Do you have an attitude? Ever now, no. Every now, yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Happy birthday. There you go. How about that? Speaking of having an attitude, did you see shit in what Patrick Beverly did last night? No. What did he do?

Patrick Beverly, the bucks lose, and at the end of the game, some guy's talking trash to him. He takes a ball and he throws it at him. in the crowd, he misses the guy talking trash and hits a woman in the side of the head. Oh, no. The woman then hands the ball to the guy who was talking trash, and he throws it back to Beverly, and then Beverly throws it at him again.

So he throws it not once but twice into the crowd. Then when the game is over, a reporter comes up to him. They're around the thing and ask a question, and he looks at her and says, have you subscribed to my podcast? And she said no, and he goes, I don't take questions from people that don't subscribe to my podcast. And she left, so she didn't say anything. She left her microphone up there, and he finally pushed it away and said, you don't subscribe to my podcast.

You don't get to ask me a question. That was the throwing the ball is one of the craziest things we've ever seen. He didn't lob it. He threw a missile both times. The guy that threw it at him kind of tossed it. And I think on the second one, he hit a different woman or a child. Both times he missed who he was throwing at and hit random people. Dude's going to get suspended for a long.

Oh, yeah. As he should. This is now where we're at with NBA players. If you lose, you can't take the trash stock. So you throw a ball into the crowd and then you don't subscribe to my podcast. First of all, how lame is you don't subscribe to my podcast? I mean, come on. I'm going to start saying that to people just in life.

I'm going to go to the bank. Hey, do you subscribe to my part? No, okay. Give me another teller over here. You don't get my money unless you subscribe to my podcast. Yeah, I mean, like, I couldn't believe he said that. Do you subscribe to my podcast? And then, so Meyer Metcalf retweeted and said, you should subscribe to a jump shot.

Oh, man. Wow. I thought that was a pretty good line. Now, does Beverly have this reputation? Because I always thought he was revered as a decent guy. He's been a huge trash talk on the court. That's the first time we've seen him with fans, I think. I mean, it's nuts how hard he throws the ball from point-blank range.

Well, he's always been known as, he's very funny. Remember he did ESPN a couple times and people really liked what he did. And so he's got an attitude and it's funny. But he's always been a trash talker. And, you know, he's an Arkansas guy. He's a pig suey guy. That's right. You could tell after he threw it the second time, even his teammates run over there and grab him.

Like, what are you doing? They're trying to pull him away from the bench. I mean, he hits, if you look at the first throw, he hits a woman in the side of the head hard. Yeah. Like, like just smacks her right against the head. And then he doubles down, throws it the second time. Yeah. So, but I think I like that, Shannon.

Everyone in life. Do you subscribe to my podcast? Sorry. No. I can't do anything for you. You can't take my order at McDonald's if you don't subscribe to my podcast. If you don't subscribe to my podcast. I didn't even know he had a podcast, by the way.

Apparently most people don't. Yes, I think that's the problem. It's a barstool podcast. 859-28027. We will take a break. The restaurant's opening. Come on out if you would like. Big crowd already.

We will make some derby picks. Talk more about the basketball team and a little football news. That's coming up next. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

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